Is the "tray error" issue on an Esoteric X-03 CD player worth fixing?

If I were you? I will fix it. Esoteric players are top notch . Unfortunately lens do give up. Why I bought extra lens for my Marantz SA 10 and my Ruby sacd players. 

I actually have been very happy with my Bluesound as a unit since buying it five years ago. It wasn't a big expense then, which was great, but I found it worked really well with my combination of two Apogee Duetta Signatures, two Vandersteen 2 CEs and two Vandersteen 2Ws that are part of my system. I certainly didn't feel "conned" by any stretch then, and don't feel so now, either. 

Had my CD player not needed a repair at the time, would I have made the switch then? That's a tough call. The time investment to burn 600-plus CDs isn't something that is done in a couple of hours. Once I did that, though, the tough lifting was done. I also love the functionality to control the Vault from your phone or desktop computer, and interface on both is so much more advanced than just a typical CD player. Then when I upgraded from my 2012 Camry to a new Corolla this year, the car CD player I had in my old car went bye-bye, with the new car having none. Having already made FLAC files of all my music, I simply copied the library onto a massive USB thumb drive, and now have access to my full library in the car at all times, which was a rather seamless switch.

But if the combo of the X-03SE and the D-03 DAC seem to tease me as a nice combination, to where I ask myself if it is worth the time and money to repair the X-03SE. I certainly think pairing them would work. The DAC has a pair of XLR inputs that aren't being used with the current configuration, and the X-03SE has its pair of XLR "Audio Out" connections. I'll just need to invest in a second pair of new XLRs (not just one pair, as is the case).

Right now, I have a coaxial connection being used with the Vault and the DAC, which is working very well. I certainly can tell an added floor and ceiling in terms of the range of the heights and depths of the lows and highs in my music, using the DAC, instead of just the Bluesound. 

So far, I hadn't used the Vault for any streaming, only having used the CD-created library to play from. But adding on streaming is something that I am considering to add as a feature with my Vault in the near future.

I recently purchased a Mark Levinson 333 as my main amp (an amp I had for four years a number of years ago, before it got damaged so significantly, that the cost and risk to repair caused me to sell it as-is, for a little $ back, and replaced it then with a new Classe CA-2200. In terms of a slight step down, I felt that happened to a certain degree when I made at switch, but couldn't find a 333 on the fly to switch to then. I've had the Classe for 13 years. For the last couple years, I increasingly was looking to buy another 333. Just purchased one a few months ago. The Classe now serves to amp my Vandersteen 2CEs, with the 333 amping my Duetta Signatures and 2Ws. Hearing that combination again was a noticeable enjoyable bump up, to where I was like, "Ahh, this is familiar..." with a smile on my face. 

I hadn't really been thinking of fixing the X-03SE at first, until I came upon the used D-03 DAC. If the sound with it makes for an impressively even nicer package, with that part of my system, that is what makes me curious.

Thanks jayctoy. I appreciate the comment. I guess I will be keeping my eye out for a possible repair of the X-03SE in the near future, and get it done when I cross paths with someone who is skilled enough and willing to do that work.

Dr. Bond, thanks for that link. Just sent you a message with a quick question.

A little trick I have been using on my Dell desktop CD drive which is also gear stripping is to insert a thin tip knife into the edge of the tray, but rather than attempting to pry the drive open which is futile, I instead "flick" the tray edge with the knife. For some reason this works at opening it. Also, after doing a few flicks the CD tray will go on a spree of opening the normal way. Additionally, it is sometimes better to pry the bottom side of the tray. How long this will keep working is anybody's guess. In the meantime, I am looking at exterior drives for my Dell.